Too Citric

Agreee!! The dialogues and their letters to each other make the show. It's like reading an epic romance. It's a shame that the subtitles don't do them justice. People relying on the subtitles only are not going to feel the emotional depth of the scenes. If you look at the korean fan reactions on youtube, it's nothing but positive with a lot of praise for the romance and writing; one even saying how she was grateful she spoke korean to fully appreciate it.

lol this is such a bizarre rambling angry at a show meant to be fantasy fiction.

To help the people, correct the wrongs of the previous king. At the end of the day as much as Yeol loved Eunjo, he was also fulfilling her dream which was putting the people of Joseon first until the crown prince was old enough to take the throne.

The sml just has a bigger fanbase on TikTok. If you notice, one of his fans is a prolific editor and has a big following.

I still don’t get people shipping Jaeyi and Eunjo…it’s all from a male perspective while ignoring Eunjo’s character. If the actor wasn’t handsome, I doubt we would be seeing it. The character’s narration on Eunjo is all about him and how she makes him feel, while he still goes on about wanting to control her and break her legs. How caring. 😒

Redemption has a very specific meaning. You're redeeming yourself for something. Maybe don't use specific words for things that you don't mean. *shrugs*

The initial comment was specifically about Jaeyi ("His frustration is then projected onto someone who mirrors him")-- a character who has been verbally abusive (wishing death on her, saying he'd break her legs, etc) and manhandled the FL. That's how he takes out his frustration.
Some of you are really not watching the show it seems but then again, maybe someone behaving like Jaeyi is not a "jerk" to you.

I’m sorry but if you think he’s “sweet to literally everyone” I don’t think you’ve been paying attention? & Not sure why you want him to have a “redemption arc”? We don’t need every ML to be a jerk first. Either ways, it looks like you’re looking for a very specific character and specific story and this isn’t it for you. Your initial comment was about JaeYi being a more dynamic character but he’s really a character we’ve seen many times before (hence my short cdrama and lakorn comment.)

The prince isn't perfect though. He's perfect when it comes to love but not outside of that, he doesn't start off as the idealistic hero. In his own words, he's a coward who felt compelled to do "nothing." He has his own growth; granted it's not at a toxic level like the SML but the last two episodes focused on the Prince's character development.

There are plenty of antihero stories though; watch any short cdrama or lakorn for those.

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion so I'm not going to reply under any tweets. But I've seen Jaeyi and Eunjo referred to as "enemies" multiple times and they are not "enemies" lol- he abuses her (excuse being his dad's mean) and she takes pity on him. Like why and when does he consider her an enemy? Enemies to lovers trope work when the enemies actually hate each other for proper reasons and have some equal standing against each other. His behavior towards her stems from his self-loathing and then him claiming to be worried for her and such. That alone doesn't make two people enemies especially when it's so one sided (especially when you take out Yeol as Eunjo scenes out).

Second most people can recognize that the actors have chemistry, but the characters? at this point, anyone thinking Jaeyi deserves Eunjo is not even paying attention to the story. The deleted scene literally had him saying these lines:

“If you're still gonna go anyway, I'll tie you up with a rope and lock you away.
If you still have to go anyway, I'll shatter your legs so you can never come out.”

Then with the excuse of that's being his upbringing. Like DUDE, that literally how perpetrators of domestic violence speak. It's actually very triggering. "I only said it/did it because I love you." He still talks about women like they're property even in ep 12. Earlier scenes he had wished death on eunjo and the constant man handling. Like there's a reason, women don't swoon when they hear stuff like that. But I'm also recognizing a lot of people don't have dating experience when they hype dialogue like that.

Anyway, Jaeyi is irredeemable after he tried to burn a leper camp (that did nothing to him) DOWN with kids in it, man's been dead to me. No excuse with a fully formed brain to realize what your actions are doing and only apologizing because the woman he wants to control is there.

I don't think he learned a single thing. That scene where they save lady yong and he's like why are you stealing from our family's property?? dude still sees women as objects. i mean a man of his times but also not someone i can get behind hyping.

It's been such a long time since I've watched a show that ends its episodes in such an epic manner and leave you wanting more. It's not about the ending itself but the dialogue and words. Like sure we've been starved physical intimacy, but they are writing ROMANCE. This is exactly how I want my fictional men written.

Why do you always show up to lie about what's on X/twitter? You did this the last time too...

people are still watching this show for the main leads LOL

what teodora said. if the king were assassinated it means her whole family/lineage and everyone related gets executed with her.

the fandom for this show on social media is so small; we just don't have that many editors :(
and I've noticed that the edits of JaeYi on tiktok also happen to be the fans of the actor playing jaeyi.

Well that's the conflict portrayed isn't it? How she's limited by what society dictates and she gives into her fate to protect the people she loves. And she goes great lengths to hide that she is gildong and only when pushed does she show her skills with the arrows. & she's only gildong not for some crazy heroic persona but for the sake of her patients. She only does as much as she needs. Her trying to survive in the society and era she's born in doesn't make her weak imo. & The story for both leads is about their growth. If you have a character already at their potential from the start, that's not compelling storytelling. at least not to me.

I thinks its unfair to call the FL weak/damsel in distress just because the ML showed up like she wanted him to (sent a message through the constable). There have been enough scenes to show us her strength and what she's capable of and how society limits her. At this point, it doesn't hurt to show that she has someone who will be there for her and that she's not alone in this world. I'm not sure what viewers are expecting the FL to do ALONE (with a child in her arms) when there's a troop of soldiers aiming to burn the place down with arrows flying and she's outnumbered. Even with ep 7, she stands up to Jaeyi's brother but Yeol showing up to protect her doesn't make her weak. Like from Eunjo's perspective, Yeol continues to demonstrate that he's a man who keeps his promise when he wants to protect her. That's romantic; maybe not to some viewers if they don't want their men to do that but its consistent with the romance they're writing between the two leads.

I thought maybe haerim would be the one to transform him...but like haerim deserves better. After that scene, there was no coming back from that. irredeemable.

she's making things up. lol

no one on twitter is saying any of that.

Unfortunately for us, the subtitles from both Viki and Netflix don't do the show justice. I miss the days when we would have "translator notes" to explain the context/nuances.

Jaeyi is a dynamic character to watch but there's absolutely nothing romantic about him or his feelings for Eun Jo that stem out of self-loathing. A man who can easily wish death on a woman and continues to express himself by wanting to control her, that's suffocating and straight up abusive behavior. But that's also why he makes a good contrast against Yeol who genuinely admires Eun Jo, respects her boundaries, and is vocal about where he stands.

Thank you!!